Creative office space demand remains strong

Creative office markets now command a higher premium than the traditional office model, a report from Jones Lang Lasalle has found.

The report suggests that creative offices can now charge up to three dollars more per sq ft that their traditional counterparts, and as such have witnessed lower vacancy rates.

There have been strong indicators across the market, which reflects the continuous growth in the sector, as well as suggesting that its current popularity is likely to proceed unabated.

Indicators:

Media and Tech Companies dominate London's office space take up in Q3, 2012.

This year in London’s third quarter, media and tech companies overtook the financial and banking sectors in terms of office space take-up for the first time, with occupations rising 50% above the five year quarterly average.

Helen Basil, analyst for Cushman & Wakefield said: “In Q3 2012, Media & Tech companies dominated take up of office space in London accounting for almost 534,000 sq ft of the total 1.8 million sq ft of space occupied in the quarter.

A report from property consultancy CBRE found companies such as Amazon, LinkedIn, and Skype rented a total of 520,000 sq m of office space in the first half of this financial year, compared to 420,000 sq m taken up by the banking and finance industries in the same period.

Ben Parkinson, reporter for SOS said: “In contrast to the successes of the tech industries, banks are still afflicted by financial difficulties, slashing staff and selling off prime assets, including their offices, to reposition themselves following the crash.”

John Burns, chief executive of Derwent London, - who lease office space to tech companies including Cisco and Expedia said: “those expecting a second dotcom bubble to burst would do well to recognise that lessons have been learnt.”